Did I Make A Wrong Click?

This morning I woke up to some muscles that were sore after yesterday's strength workout. Especially my quads. Turns out when you're not doing those leg presses very often, your legs sort of forget how to recover as quickly. I later realized that my arms were pretty tired as well, but that's skipping ahead.

Today just before lunch, Nicole asked me if I'd like to join her and another co-worker for a pilates mat session. I didn't have any workout clothes with me, so once I had borrowed shorts from someone else at work and a t-shirt from Drew, I was all set for the session. The other person who was going to join us bowed out, so I ended up getting a private session.

I don't know if it was just that my muscles were tired from yesterday or because I hadn't eaten lunch yet, but I definitely struggled. I think part of it might be that Nicole is now trying to teach some of the intermediate moves and she stuck a few of those in. Whatever the reason, it was definitely a good lunch time workout! I was really glad that I had brought an entire sandwich instead of my usual 1/2 sandwich for lunch today.

The afternoon at work was a bit slow (most people left early for the holiday weekend), so I spent a few minutes checking out the website swimplan.com. Susan has mentioned it in her blog a few times recently and I was intrigued by the whole thing. I'll admit that I just sort of guessed when it asked me my split times and it might be that I over-estimated myself a bit. This was the workout that it created for me:

Warm Up:
2 x 100 yd Any Stroke, rest 0:15 (216)
Build Up:
1 x 50 yd Freestyle Breath Left, rest 0:15 (54)
1 x 50 yd Freestyle Breath Right, rest 0:15 (54)
Core:
2 x 200 yd Freestyle Swim, leave on 3:40 (432)
2 x 100 yd Freestyle Swim, leave on 1:55 (216)
2 x 200 yd Freestyle Swim, leave on 3:40 (432)
4 x 50 yd Freesyle Swim, leave on 1:02 (216)
Warm Down:
1 x 100 yd Freestyle Easy, rest 0:20 (108)
1 x 100 yd Easy Any Stroke, rest 0:20 (108)

So, here's the thing ... the pool at my gym is an 18 yard pool, not 25 yards. It'd be a lot easier to do these workouts if I could count evenly. So, I have to convert everything to an 18-yard scale. The workout today was supposed to be 1700 yards, but because of my conversions (and rounding up) I ended up swimming 1836 yards. I certainly don't mind the extra swimming, it just makes everything a bit more interesting. So, the amounts in parentheses above are the actual distances I swam. I will say that I was a little disappointed in this workout only because I said that I was willing to use a kickboard or pull buoy and I didn't get anything 'fun' to do. Just regular swimming.

I realized during the warm-up that my arms were exhausted from yesterday. I know exactly what did it. It was those decline bench presses. At the end of them yesterday my arms were pretty much wiped and somehow I just hadn't been thinking about using my arms today while I was doing them.

I was wondering when I was swimming the core portion of the workout if I had completely over-estimated my swimming abilities. The first 2 x 200 that was supposed to be completed in 3:40 I did them in 3:31 and 3:43. It was really the second one that got me wondering if I had done it all wrong. Now that I see the math and that I was really swimming an extra 32 yards everytime, I think that I would have been more right on if my pool was a bit more cooperative. On the second set I finished in 3:35 and 3:31. I felt really good about the last one being faster than the previous two. The 4 x 50 set I did in about 0:50 each time, so I think that maybe I did guess correctly on the time splits.

I think that even if I did slightly over-estimate my abilities, it is a really good way for me to get in the pool and try to push myself. I'm not sure that I'm in love with this particular swim plan, but the good thing is that it will generate a new plan for you each time. I'm sure I'll find some that I like more than others, but this was a really good workout for me today. Sometimes when I'm swimming by myself I don't feel like I'm giving it all I've got and this swim was definitely a challenge, which was exactly what I needed.

Tomorrow morning Drew and I are going to meet with his personal trainer for a private class in the park. I'm sure with my tired arms and legs I won't be in tip-top shape for this class, but I think it will be great to get outdoors and enjoy the weather! I also know that the last time Drew and I met with his trainer it was before all of this triathlon training and I had a bad attitude. I'd like to redeem myself just a little bit.